>> Monday, July 8, 2013

I am so fortunate to be part of the Sewing Accessories Blog Hop hosted by my wonderful friend Jamie at Sunflower Quilts. I love all the projects in this book and I could not wait to get my iron caddy made. I've been hauling my iron around from retreats to sew-ins being careful not to drop it or spill all the water out of it, so this is just what I needed!

For this project I chose Echino Buck in cirton paired with an awesome black text print I love. The two are so fitting for each other plus the black will hide any water stains from my iron.

Everything went great with this...I chose not to put on handles because I normally put my iron in a tote of some sort when hauling.

There is only one thing that went wrong at the very end...apparently I have a huge iron, which I should have thought of because mine has the steam generator built right in. When first reading through the pattern it does tell you it fits a normal sized iron. Well, I must have been delusional thinking that I have a normal size iron...or I wasn't thinking at all because it doesn't fit. SO I made do...

It will now house my Dritz mini travel iron! I did re-sew it a bit smaller just so it wasn't too big but it fits just right! Besides, I needed a carrier for this iron too so it all worked out.

There are a ton of cute little projects in this book..I think my next one will be the giant Sew on the Go Tote featured last week on Jamie's Blog Sunflower Seeds.

Be sure to stop by Janices blog betteroffthread next week for another feature from the book.

If you make something from the book, they would LOVE to see it, so make sure to add a photo their Flickr Group!

Now how about that giveaway?! Jamie has so kindly agreed to give one of my lucky readers a free copy! All you have to do it leave a comment, along with contact information on this post..I'll randomly pick a lucky winner by Sunday...just before you hop on over to the next post. Enjoy!

>> Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Its spreading like WILDFIRE! What is it? Its the St. Louis 16 patch quilt. Quick and oh so easy, its a great scrap buster that will use up all those fat quarters we're hoarding! So break into your old favorites that you are "saving for good" and join us. I promise you it will look amazing when finished.

Where did the name come from? Now... I know there is nothing super original about this quilt..it has a million different names and has been done countless times throughout history. I just took a more modern approach to it and applied speed techniques to the piecing. While my mother was heading to St. Louis, MO for quilt market in 1998, she did some math and thought it would be a great way to use some flannel we had at the shop at that time. So hence...St. Louis 16 Patch. Thats it.

I originally made this quilt in 1998 with my mother out of pastel homespun plaids...yup it was the happening thing during that time. I desperately searched for my original quilt tonight for this post but I'm afraid my sister sold it, unbeknown to me! GAH!

Lets get started!

So pick out some fat quarters, iron them well with Best Press and stack them up. Lets get cutting!

2 Fat quarters will make 2 identical blocks. Sew strips together using 1/4" seam allowance. Alternating each of your prints.

Press seams in a consistent direction. I choose to press my seams down. For speed cutting I like to stack two blocks together at a time. I align my pressed seams going in opposite directions. In the photo above I have the seams on the bottom block going up and the seams on the top block going down. This allows my seams to 'Lock' together while cutting.

Sub cut strip sets every 4"

Flip or rotate every other strip and sew them back together. Seams should nest together:

At this point I press my seams in a consistent direction, in the block above I chose down. Continue piecing blocks together until you get your desired amount.

I find it quicker to do more than a couple at a time because I can chain piece them through my machine. For some reason I like to make 4 at first, so I can put them on my design wall for inspiration! Choose how big you want to go....blocks will be 14" when finished. Here is a list of layouts and amounts needed for a variety of sizes to get you started:

Feel free to be a rebel and make it square, extra large or teeny-tiny for a wall quilt.

Be creative and be sure to hash tag on instagram so I can follow all of your creative 16 patch endeavors. ( #stlouis16patch )

A special THANK YOU goes to Katy at ImAGingerMonkey (who I met a Quilt Market this

past spring where I totally made a ass of myself and added a british accent while being introduced to her... Fool. I'm surprised she still acknowledges me but in my defense it just came out. Kinda jealous... I have this stupid MinnesOOta accent.) She was the one who saw my awesome version on instagram pictured below and loved it enough to make one on her own.

Mine is HUGE 112" x 112" and made for my king bed. Since everyone is jumping on board with me, thanks to Katy, I had to make another. So I whipped out my old Amy Butler Belle stash and went to work yesterday on a smaller version.

I've enjoyed seeing everyones choices in fabrics and progress. I promise you these blocks are super quick and you'll be just as addicted as I am! If any of you have any questions feel free to ask!

I leave you (hopefully) inspired to go and make your own!

Its been Seuss approved...

(he snuck on while I was binding it sunday)

And Bogey approved...he helped today while taking pictures on the ice...had to share.

>> Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Hello friends! Its been almost a year since I sat down and took the time to post about what I've been up to. Its not that I haven't been sewing...I've been sewing like mad...but taking the time to post everything that I've been doing is, well, a challenge for me. I admit it. Most of the time I'm making more than one project at a time and by the time I get them done, the next day they are in the shop on display. I'd like to tell all of you to just 'Stop in!' to the shop, but I know that's not reality. (as much as I wish it was...everything I sew is in the shop and I know most of you would love it!)

SO where can you find me until I find some magical potion to get my blogging-mojo back? You can find me on Instagram...its there you'll find my daily pictures of sewing, fabric, lake life and dogs. Until I figure out how to link my Instagram directly to my blog please stop in to my feed and comment! I love hearing for all of you, its why I sew on a daily basis.

>> Tuesday, April 3, 2012

I love when I get the chance to be creative for a client, but I really love it when I have the opportunity to do almost whatever I want. Thats when my creative juices really start flowing and some of my best work comes out. This time I had the opportunity to create a memory quilt for a friend of my cousins. Last February, I made a memory quilt for Katrina, completely custom with appliqued and embroidered blocks, sorority letters, special symbols and custom quilting. It turned out so amazing! One of her friends, Kristine, had shirts from her younger years that her mother wanted to put into a quilt for her. I generally tell clients that the more shirts the better, this time I didn't have as many as I normally do and all the designs were smaller motifs. This presented a little bit of a problem, but I made do! The only constraint I had was using the colors from the Wisconsin high school she attended: Yellow/Gold and Black.

After I got the green light on the fabrics, I went right to work. I only had a few weeks to get not only the top done, but the quilting and binding as well. It's a little bit of a process when making a quilt from scratch and takes many hours. First, I back all my shirts with Bosal fusible woven interfacing to prevent any of the edges rolling under when I cut them down. Second I throw them up on my design wall to see where they might work in a design. This all depends on what each shirt has printed on it and what the client wants from each shirt.

I start putting sashing on shirts, and making custom embroidered blocks to fit in where needed. Kathy (Kristines mom) had a few phrases and dates that she wanted added to the quilt -like an inside joke 'Peace be witchu Mary' from a childhood play Kristine was in.

I took a satin shirt off a little stuffed bear, which had her graduation dates embroidered in it and placed it in the sashing of one of the blocks. I also took her Brown Deer high school logo, digitized it and embroidered it for another quilt block.

I took the patch off her honor society sash you wear while walking the line and placed it in the quilt below some ribbons from sport medals she had won. Feb 8th is her birthdate, so I embroidered that between the ribbons.

I also had a large Little Mermaid shirt with all these fun designs on it..I thought it would take up some space for me! Turns out she just wanted the little flounder off of it...shucks. So I put the flounder in 'apple lake'...turns out its Kathy's favorite part of the quilt! After messing around with all the shirts and sayings, about 4 different layouts and 18 hours of sewing and planning I was done with my top.

I threw it on the HQ quilting machine that night, knowing my deadline was just a few days away.

I went with Shannon charcoal grey cuddle for the backing, Dream Cotton Select batting, and grey King Tut quilting thread.

For the top I used two different King Tut quilting threads- the grey from the backing and a variegated yellow to brighten it up. I went completely custom, quilting each block on its own and using a swirl pattern in the sashing to tie it all together.

After 5 hours of quilting, I was done. As soon as I took it off the machine to see the quilting in its entirety not only was I really proud of the job I had done, I didn't want to give it up! I didn't think it was going to turn out this amazing, generally I don't even to this custom of quilting on my own quilts!

After it was bound I snapped a few pictures quick, then headed to the post office to ship it to Kathy in WI...it made it just in time - the day before Kristines birthday.

I really love the back because you can see all the quilting, it really makes the quilt pop.

My favorite part of the quilt...besides the quilting itself? The bubbler block. I love it because its quirky and I love the water droplets in the quilting. I guess 'Bubbler' is what they call drinking fountains in WI. Who knew?!

I had so much fun getting creative and having no boundaries to follow. Thank you Kathy so much for the opportunity to put these memories into a quilt that will last her lifetime! I feel so honored to have the chance to do something like this.

I have another client T-shirt quilt that I am in the middle of, but its another surprise so I can't show you just yet. Each one of these quilts I take on has so much personality and each one is so unique...it really makes the designing process enjoyable!

>> Sunday, April 1, 2012

A few days ago I blogged about the re-print of Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt and how much I adore this fabric - since then I've started another quilt (and planned two more while working at the shop! *I think I might need to reign it in a bit.) It's one I've had my eye on for a little bit - called Garnets and Gold from little bits Quilting Bee book.

At first the fabrics in the book caught my eye because I just love Anna Maria Horner but I couldn't use the same fabrics...so I dug out my FMF stash and started planning. Then I opened up the book to the quilt pattern and quickly realized I had to use paper templates. Ugh. I hate cutting with paper templates because if you make one wrong cut - the rest of the blocks after that are not the same. So, I contacted my uncle who custom laser cuts our large apple core rulers for the shop to see if he could help me. I sent him the paper templates and this is what I got back:

*This got me thinking about DS Single Girl quilt that I've been eyeing up for like-ever. So I had him cut me all the templates for that too! Now I might stop thinking about it and actually do it!

So after thinking about grain lines and working with what scraps I have, I made a good dent on my Garnets and Gold quilt. I went with warm golds/reds/pinks and paired them with cool blues/greens/teals. We'll see how this one goes!

>> Saturday, March 31, 2012

Yesterday I received a little care package filled with fun citron and grey prints, mostly Michael Miller fabrics. After adding some prints from home and a little corduroy this is what I had to use:

I went home last night and put a little something together for someone special

I can only show you a little but because I cant ruin the surprise...I'm planning on quilting this as soon as our grey minkee arrives at the shop then I have to get it off to its new home. I'll post more pictures when I she has it and my surprise is over.

This is Me!

My name is Steffani K and I love fabric, design and all things creative. This blog will be a place where I can document my work, inspire and show my love of sewing. I work with my mother who owns Country Fabrics in Brainerd, MN and we have a blast sewing with all the new modern fabrics. Contact me: sk.burton@hotmail.com